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About Dr. Jeremy Richard

Dr. Jeremy Richard (1950-1990)

Jeremy Richard was appointed Associate Professor of English at UConn Stamford in 1979 after completing a Doctorate in English, American Language and Literature at Harvard College. He was instructor and lecturer at Harvard, director of that college’s Summer Writing Program, and assistant archivist at the Fogg Museum in Cambridge. He led book and drama discussions across the state for the Connecticut Humanities Council.

Dr. Richard died of AIDS at age forty. Following a discussion at the Wilton Library in Wilton, Connecticut, Dr. Richard expressed affection for his role as an educator: “I am that lucky person who spends his life at what he likes to do best.”

He looked to his students as a source of inspiration: “They have the function of picking me up occasionally by my collar,” he told another discussion group, “and making me dust off some of the nice capital letter generalizations I use.”

The students found inspiration from him as well. UConn alumnus Zakia Hyder wrote an article published in the Stamford Advocate a few months after Dr. Richard’s death, putting her personal loss into words. Hyder described her former teacher as “an inspiration, a supportive hand and an encouraging voice.”

In a letter to the Advocate, Dr. Yakira Frank wrote of Jeremy Richard: “He was a fine colleague and devoted friend to faculty and staff, assisting them in many ways, always with grace, generosity, and a delightful wit. Students responded to him with great affection, sensing that he was a teacher who cared about them.”

Jeremy Richard had a passion for literature, theatre, and opera, and left over 2,000 books and numerous sound recordings to UConn Stamford. In 1992 the library was named in his honor. The naming ceremony included remarks from faculty and former students, excerpts from Shakespeare’s Richard II and The Tempest, and performances by members of the UConn Opera.

Four programs of lecture and discussion on Shakespeare plays (Hamlet, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) presented at the Wilton Library in 1989. The programs are available on DVD and VHS from the Jeremy Richard Library, and to stream online through the UConn Libraries catalog.